A first visit to Afan Argoed
25 May 2004 - I recently made my first visit to Afan Forest Park in South Wales. There were plenty of trails to choose from, but I decided to try out the Whites Level Trail. It's a relatively new trail that only appeared last year, but already has an excellent reputation for providing plenty of excitement.
The trail starts at Glyncorrwg Ponds. This is on the way towards Glyncorrwg village and is in the process of being set up as a major visitors centre. I initially found it a bit difficult to work out the correct route to follow, but once on it, the signing seemed to be foolproof. I found my way around, so it can't be that bad!
The riding certainly lived up to its reputation. It wasn't quite as long as I expected, and I completed it in about 1.5 hours, but there was plenty going on. The first half of the ride is mostly uphill. It's hard work, being mostly on singletrack. It's not like Coed y Brenin where most uphill is done on fire roads and can be relatively gentle. Once the initial climb is done, it starts to get fun. A few sections of slight uphill and downhill keep the pace up over a good distance, but then it's time for the big descent. It's reminiscent of the final downhill at Gwydyr Forest. It must be two or three miles of pure downhill. On the way, you have the choice of staying on relatively easy terrain or going slightly to the side and getting jumps off rocks that have been placed in the ground strategically. It all makes for a very enjoyable finish to an excellent trail.
If you would like to try riding at Afan Argoed, I would recommend printing off a map before you go. There were good maps of the trails at Afan Argoed visitors centre, but these didn't include the White's Level Trail. There were maps of the White's Level at the Glyncorrwg Ponds centre, but these were just black and white photocopies. Print your own colour map if you can, just in case. To get a map, I would recommend going to the mbwales.com web site.